Page 45 - treasure-island

6. The Captain’s Papers

E rode hard all the way till we drew up before Dr. Li-
Wvesey’s door. The house was all dark to the front.
Mr. Dance told me to jump down and knock, and Dog-
ger gave me a stirrup to descend by. The door was opened
almost at once by the maid.
‘Is Dr. Livesey in?’ I asked.
No, she said, he had come home in the afternoon but had
gone up to the hall to dine and pass the evening with the
squire.
‘So there we go, boys,’ said Mr. Dance.
This time, as the distance was short, I did not mount, but
ran with Dogger’s stirrup-leather to the lodge gates and up
the long, leafless, moonlit avenue to where the white line of
the hall buildings looked on either hand on great old gar-
dens. Here Mr. Dance dismounted, and taking me along
with him, was admitted at a word into the house.
The servant led us down a matted passage and showed us
at the end into a great library, all lined with bookcases and
busts upon the top of them, where the squire and Dr. Li-
vesey sat, pipe in hand, on either side of a bright fire.
I had never seen the squire so near at hand. He was a tall
man, over six feet high, and broad in proportion, and he
had a bluff, rough-and-ready face, all roughened and red-
dened and lined in his long travels. His eyebrows were very

Treasure Island